Sixties starlet Suzanna Leigh dated Richard Harris, Steve McQueen and Michael
Caine. But it was her friendship with Elvis Presley, with whom she starred in
the 1966 film Paradise, Hawaiian Style, that still dominates her life. For
years, she’s been plagued by doubts about his death. Here, she describes how her
investigations led to a shocking conclusion . . .

As soon as I saw photos of the aftermath of Elvis’s death, alarm bells went
off in my head.

There was a picture of a woman, who was close to Elvis, standing in the
doorway at Graceland in the middle of the night, just hours after his death. She
looked immaculate, her make-up perfect.

What was wrong with this? Well, if the love of my life had just been found
dead, I would have looked like the Witch of Endor, mascara streaming down my
face.

Mob connection? Elvis Presley had been part of one of the largest FBI
investigations of the Seventies, codenamed Fountain Pen

Although we were only ever friends, I had been in love with Elvis since I was
11. My dreams of meeting him came true when I was cast in Paradise, Hawaiian
Style. We bonded immediately and became true soulmates.

Elvis, who was very religious, loved my stories about my English convent
school. The first time he took my hand was on set. We only kissed twice but
there was the promise of many more intimacies to come. We remained friends
throughout my passionate affair with Richard Harris, and wanted to make another
movie together — but it was never to be.

Colonel Tom Parker never liked our friendship, mainly because I was
introducing him to actors like Richard Harris. Elvis wanted to be a real actor,
but Colonel Parker only looked for easy money.

I was asleep in London when Elvis died — having returned to Britain in the
Seventies. In the years that followed, I continued my career in England. Then,
in 2003, I put my connection with Elvis to use by going to work as a VIP tour
guide at Graceland.

It was there that I first heard rumours from people on the estate that Elvis
had been murdered. And when I went to the library to find out more, I discovered
that many reputable people believed his death — from apparent heart failure,
compounded by drug abuse — was not straightforward.

One book pointed the finger at Elvis’s doctor, ‘Nick’ Nichopoulos, who
prescribed scores of pills for his hypochondriac patient, although it’s hard to
believe he would kill his paymaster.

The most interesting theory was by British journalist John Parker, who
claimed there was a Mafia connection.

Then there’s the fact that the post-mortem report will not be available until
2027. Why would the Federal Bureau of Investigation lock documents away if there
was nothing to hide?

I soon learned Elvis had in fact been part of one of the largest FBI
investigations of the Seventies, codenamed Fountain Pen. Apparently, he had been
the innocent victim in a Mafia fraud case involving billions of dollars.

Scores of federal agents worldwide had investigated it, and Elvis was due to
give evidence. The FBI was meant to be protecting Elvis when he died.

Despite this, Elvis’s death has never been officially investigated.

The first person I talked to as I tried to understand more about the mystery
was Beecher Smith, who had been Elvis’s lawyer.

He told me that as part of the investigation, Elvis and his father were
supposed to appear in front of a federal grand jury on August 16, 1977 — the day
Elvis died.

My next port of call was George Klein, who had been at school with Elvis. He
told me that just before his death, Elvis, who was a mess because of his hectic
workload, had decided to take a year off and had sacked half his staff,
including Colonel Parker.

When he sacked his band, tempers were running so high that they brought out a
salacious book about him just two weeks before he died. It all got so nasty that
Elvis was forced to employ a team of security people who were all ex-cops,
headed by Dick Grob, a former police sergeant.

Suspicion: British actress Suzanna Leigh still believes Elvis was murdered

George told me Elvis was so serious about giving up work that he had rented a
house in Hawaii and planned to get fit again.

To find out more, I went to see Grob. Though upset when talking about it all,
he confirmed that Vernon, Elvis’s father, always believed his son was murdered.

When Elvis died, Grob had launched his own investigation, questioning
everyone in the house as to where they were that night, and logging every call.

He claims records show someone phoned a newspaper from Graceland at 1am to
alert them that there was a big story coming out that night — an hour before
emergency services were called.

Then he made a truly extraordinary allegation. ‘Elvis died of a massive
codeine overdose,’ he told me. ‘It doesn’t matter what other things they say he
died of — that is what he really died of.’

I could hardly believe what I was hearing. I knew Elvis was allergic to
codeine, an opiate painkiller. Could someone have tricked him into ingesting it?

Grob explained that the madness on the night Elvis died meant that nothing
was properly investigated. ‘There was pandemonium in the streets, with
distraught fans and journalists arriving from all over the world,’ he said.
‘There were about 200,000 people outside the gate.

‘If the police had said they suspected Elvis had been murdered, there would
have been a lynching. The police tried to get a handle on things, but so much
stuff was walking out the door. A lot of things disappeared that night and were
sold later.

‘Someone even washed the carpet where Elvis had fallen. Imagine that —
cleaning up before the police arrived? It could only have been someone really
close to Elvis that could have ordered that.’

Elvis Presley cheek to cheek with his bride, the former Priscilla Ann
Beaulieu, following their wedding in 1967

George Klein had told me that many suspicions were focused on Colonel Parker.
Beecher Smith, meanwhile, said Parker had a lot to gain from Elvis’s death —
only a day after the death, he had persuaded the singer’s father to sign over to
him 50 per cent of The King’s posthumous earnings.

The news about Colonel Parker didn’t surprise me. I had never liked him. Yet
though there were a lot of incentives for him to dispatch his protege, he wasn’t
there that fateful night.

So how did Elvis die?

In Dick Grob’s opinion, it was organised by the Mob. He told me they did not
want Elvis or his father to appear in court because of all the media interest it
would create, so they must have got someone inside the house. ‘That’s what
Vernon believed all along,’ said Dick. ‘Someone from inside let the killer into
the house.’

This was explosive stuff, and I suspected I was on the right track because
odd things started happening to me. First, a wheel fell off my truck while I was
driving.

If I had been going faster, I could have been killed. A mechanic I saw
afterwards said the nuts on the other wheels were also about to come off.
Somebody had been messing with them.

Then, one night as I was walking my dog, I stood like a rabbit in the
headlights while a young black girl, not more than 20, stuck her arm out of the
window of a passing car and fired at least five very loud shots from a handgun,
which hit some trees above me.

On another occasion, someone broke into my car, then someone tried to break
into my house and stabbed one of my other dogs.

To this day, I suspect someone wanted me out of the way. I didn’t wait to
find out who before I left town.

I know people will find it hard to believe these claims, but I knew the real
Elvis, and after what’s happened to me I’m more convinced than ever that we are
a long way from discovering the full truth about his death.